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Monthly Archives: August 2007

PC Magazine this week featured Ustream.TV as their Editor’s Choice. We think its a great review and a testament to all the help and advice from the Ustream Community! Thank You!

“Ustream.tv makes it so easy to broadcast live video, it’s only a matter of
time before everyone’s doing it.

This free service lets anyone with a notebook, webcam, and an Internet
connection broadcast live, real-time video from just about anywhere. It’s
amazingly practical, more than a little fun, and quite possibly a revolution
in broadcasting.

I can think of countless applications for this service. You could conduct
live interviews at trade shows or other venues. You could broadcast a
wedding or school play for friends or family who can’t attend (though,
again, the video quality is a little iffy for large-scale events). You could
even share a breaking news event with the world. Ustream turns your notebook
PC into a mobile TV studio, able to broadcast to tens of thousands of
simultaneous viewers.”

Back in April, I had the honor of witnessing the birth of my new son Hayden. As a founder of Ustream, I naturally thought a great idea would be to stream the birth LIVE on our new platform (and no I did not plan on “showing” anything). However, this plan was quickly shot down by my lovely (and smarter) significant other. I told her we would save it for our next child at which she just laughed.

Well, someone beat me to it. This Ustream first now (atleast to my knowledge) goes to Elle Marie Saarinen, our very own honorary Ustream baby.

WebCamMax has recently announced the release of their new version 4.0.1.0. This new release includes the ability to have two seperate video feeds in a picture in picture and the ability to add a draw capability on top of the screen. The new version also includes a improved UI, however they do not offer a Mac solution. For Macs, we still recommend Camtwist by Steve Green. Although still not as good as Camtwist, WebCamMax is still the best we have seen for the PC.

I can not stand politics. It doesn’t matter what kind we’re talking about: Office, media, government. To me, politics scream ego, spin, and it stifles true option. Let’s face it, we all CRINGE when the political ads start rolling on television. Despite that, I was thrilled to see evidence of how important new media is going to be in this year’s presidential election.

The folks over at UStream.TV streamed the entire YearlyKos convention in Chicago this year. The highlight of the convention was a forum with the Democratic presidential candidates on Saturday. There were 1,400 people at the conference itself. During the forum, 2,500 people were watching on UStream at the same time. An amazing 40,000 people tuned in at some point during the conference. That is absolutely amazing to me. UStream even went as far as to ask questions from the online forum to General Wesley Clark.

People are hungry for information. They are turning to internet sources for this information with greater and greater frequency. While it’s difficult to manage 50 people, let alone 2,500 people in a forum to address questions, it’s exactly the direction these candidates need to go. The last two presidential elections have been all about the town hall meeting. With the advent of new media, this town hall NEEDS to be taken online. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Relationships is what web 2.0 and new media are all about. It’s about being more authentic, personal, approachable, and accessible. The candidate that can utilize the tools of new media and at least portray this feeling of authenticity will flourish. We need to talk WITH the candidates, not be talked AT.

We now have Twitter Integration for broadcasters! You can now easily notify your friends, community, pals, associates, lovers and haters that you are broadcasting live directly from your broadcast console. Twittering has never been easier…

Ustream.TV is proud to welcome a series of new shows to our nightly line produced by Thestream.TV.

Thestream.TV is bringing their entire line up of nightly shows to Ustream.TV. These shows include “Show Us the Funny!”, “Green Health Live”, “Guide to Getting a Life”, “Coin-Op TV Live
Gaming Culture News & Industry Guests”, “Lovestream”, “Live! From the Future…with Stuart Paap!”, “Filmnut” and many more!

Actor Gregory Itzin of FOXâ€™s 24 will be LIVE on Ustream.TV. He has also appeared on Boston Legal, Firefly, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Enterprise & Voyager, Judging Amy, The O.C., Friends, The Practice, The West Wing, Quantum Leap, Matlock and Beverly Hills 90210. Movie credits include Adaptation, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and Airplane!. His IMDB credits are indeed vast. Itzin recently completed principle photography of the independent feature film â€œFloat.â€ Heâ€™ll be joining us to discuss big budget vs. indie projects and to talk about production in general from an actorâ€™s point of view.

Chat with him live during the broadcast on Wednesday, August 8th, 2007 at 8pm PST (11pm EST).

The Stream of Consciousness Online Television Network (www.theStream.tv) is a Los Angeles based, online, independent TV station that airs all of its live, interactive shows out of the same 15â€²x11â€² studio on Wilshire Blvd. Brian Gramo, theStream.tvâ€™s founder, has personally directed nearly 300 live shows since the network launched in January 2007. Viewers that visit the site during a live show can send in questions or comments to the hosts and guests via all major instant messenger services.

It’s been a whirlwind couple of days here in Chicago, where Ustream has been
streaming the annual YearlyKos convention. My co-founder John Ham and I
have worked our tails off trying to cover as much as we can, while meeting
as many folks as possible (Our other founders, Gyula Feher and Adam Katona,
didn’t make the trip from Budapest…just a little too far!).

At one point, we had 2,500 people watching and chatting…and
unlike traditional television, these viewers were fully engaged in a
conversation that was at times thought-provoking, funny, brutal, insightful,
and most of all, passionately engaged. Over 40,000 people at one point or another tuned in to watch a portion of the convention. This is amazing because there were only 1,400 there in attendance!

John and I got to the convention center every morning to stake out the best
possible spot for the cameras. There we were, with our little video cams,
surrounded and dwarfed by the entourages and equipment of over 200 members
of the traditional press. And yet despite all those cameras and reporters,
Ustream was the only network to carry a critical debate between these
Democratic presidential candidates LIVE:http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2007/08/04/yearlykos-convention-2007-on-u
stream/

At one point, one of the cameramen was jockeying for position, and
commented, “The real media should have the best spots.” To which I replied,
“You’re spending the whole day here, and how much of this convention are you
going to broadcast? A 5-second sound bite? We’re broadcasting the whole
thing. Let the people decide what they want to watch. We are the people’s media.”

That’s the beauty of Ustream. Instead of letting other people decide what
you *get* to see, you can choose for yourself. Of course, citizen
journalists aren’t likely to have trucks full of production crews to deliver
HD-quality video with reaction shots of the crowd. But the real choice here
isn’t between Ustream and CNN; it’s between Ustream in all its “low-def
glory” and no coverage at all.

Now what we’d really love is to do the same thing with the Republican
candidates. We’d love to help every candidate out there really connect with
voters.

The Internet is bringing the democracy back to politics, and we’re grateful
to be a part of it.

Here I am interviewing former General Wesley Clark. In this 10 minute
conversation, we took a bunch of questions from the chat room, touching on
Iraq, Guantanamo, and the recent actions of the Supreme Court. (Sound starts about mid-clip)http://ustream.tv/YearlyKos/videos/WDtkeHRASK2hvhnSbQMW3A

We look forward to streaming more events and appreciate all the support from the community!

Last night, Governor Howard Dean streamed his keynote speech LIVE on Ustream.TV from the YearlyKos Convention. Governor Dean gave a motivating and powerful speech to nearly 1400 in person and another 200 online.

“There is so much great content that mainstream media just doesn’t cover” says Brad Hunstable, Founder of Ustream.TV. “Ustream.TV now gives the world access to all the great conferences and events around the world.”

Tune in Saturday, August 4th for Senator Harry Reid, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer at 8am cst. Later that day at 1pm cst watch the Presidential Leadership Forum LIVE on Ustream.TV.